Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Some of the old Sally Hansen Prisms are fantastic...I picked up a few of them last summer when the Bargain Shop was selling them in plastic pouches and have spotted some in bargain bins at flea markets and the like. **Always check out the bins or makeup sales at flea markets as you never know what you may find there! ** Here's two coats of Ruby Emerald over one coat of Illamasqua Boosh...a glorious one coat wonder! I took a few pix in different lighting... Here's another one... Now, onto the new plates! Some of you may know that a fellow blogger, Shirley over at Shirley's Beauty-Nails** designed her own line of image plates. I'm always on the lookout for new image plates and she has some really great and unique designs, so as soon as I had a few extra dollars, I ordered 28 of the available ones. Here's my first time using them over my mani using Orly Luxe using plate SdP B-13. My fingers were stamped this morning which was day three of this polish, so thats why its not as nice and shiny as the above pix! The pix above is in direct sunlight; the pix below is in the shade so the stamp design shows a little better. And I stumbled across a source for Anna Sui polishes a week or so ago...of course had to pick up a few and thought it would be a great time to give them a try. The sparkly thumb is Anna Sui #81. Love these rose scented polishes...but not loving the brush so much...I guess its a small price to pay for the gloriousness! Anna Sui is available at select Shoppers Drug Marts (in my area anyway). The one I visited had about 15ish different colours to chose...unfortunately the one I'm lemming the most, #300, wasn't part of the collection.

Thx for looking!

**Please note that I paid the invoiced amount in full for my plates. I do not endorse nor promote this website/etailer other than I am passing on the info of where I got them to those who may wish to know. I have no affiliation with any company and received no compensation for promotion of these products, nor am I promoting them...just letting fellow bloggers where they may be obtained should they be interested!

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Haven't used crack in a while...polish that is!!!...so when I was deciding on my next mani and seen p2 crackling silver polish sitting there, I'd thought I'd give it a try. P2 is not available in Canada, but again, I was lucky enough to swap for it. Here's Nubar Belize Coral with one coat of p2 Silver Crackling polish, with topcoat.

This is before topcoat; it has a matte finish, typical of other crackle/shatters on the market. While I was putting on the crackling polish, I seen it had a slight shimmer and it had the same finish of China Glaze OMG (less the holo, of course)...which got me to thinking, wouldn't holo crackle/shatter/crackling polish just be the coolest ever? I guess if you are into crackle it would be...can you just image the combination possibilities? I guess time will tell if it ever materializes...I'm gonna keep my fingers crossed! Here's a closeup of the shimmer; hopefully you cansee what I'm talking about. Here's a rare pix of my right hand...on this hand, I applied the crackling polish a little thicker, and you can see the effect is a bit chunkier. And Nubar Belize Coral by itself...this would be a perfect spring or summer polish...I can't wait to try it with some stamping! You probably know that OPI is coming out with a silver shatter; it will be interesting to see how the two compare! Hope you're having a great weekend and thx for looking!

Saturday, March 26, 2011

I cannot believe that I decided to stamp over Nfu oh# 51...so pretty and glowy...but its for a good cause! Tonight between 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. I'll be turning out my lights in recognition of Earth Hour. Here's my Earth Hour mani....yesterday's mani of Nicole By OPI Midnight Snowfall, topped with one coat of nfu 51 and now stamped using Nicole By OPI Positive Energy. Used IP's T37, T46, HB32, HB44, fauxnad m04, fauxnad m27, fauxnad H and fauxnad C05. Thx for looking!

Friday, March 25, 2011

Nfu oh polishes are one of my favourites...its hard to say outright that they are my #1 all-time favourite as there are so many spectacular polishes out there, but certainly, they are near the top of my list. I think Nfu oh has some of the most unique polishes-their holo's and flaky's are bar none...and while I don't have any of their cremes, the ones I've seen in the blogesphere look great as well. I absolutely adore the bottles too...any bottle with a funky design is tops in my books!

This is Nicole by OPI Midnight Snowfall topped with one coat of Nfu oh 51. This combo is very glowy-hopefully, its gorgeousness translates in the pictures....

Nfu oh's aren't available at anyplace I know of in Canada; I know there are some online stores out there that sell them, but don't know if they ship to Canada. I've been lucky to swap for those that I have.

A long time ago, I went to the Nfu oh's blog page and there was a note saying to email them for Canadian sellers; while they were good enough to get back to me right away indicating that they would try to locate one; no followup email was ever received...so if anyone knows where a Canadian gal can get these and they will ship to Canada, kindly let me know!

Sorry for so many pix of the same mani; its just in different angles/lighting, it showed something different and this next pix, the polish just glows in the bottle...

Here's Nicole by OPI Midnight Snowfall on its own....

I haven't decided if I'm going to stamp this...if I do, I will update the post...but for now, I'm really liking it on its own!

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

My happy spring nails didn't last too long as there was a death in the family on Sunday afternoon. So had to tone them down for visitions and funeral last couple of days...and didn't stamp either... probably could have done a simple french tip or simple swirls but never...

Anyway, I've been wearing this since Monday...pretty and fairly conservative (well, really conservative for me!) but thought I'd share for anyone who may want to try this combo for work or like to wear pretty neutrals.

Two coats of OPI Tickle My France-y topped with one coat of OPI Hollywood Blonde.

Hollywood Blonde is pretty hard to find and of course, long unavailable by the time I had started really getting into polishes, but was able to swap for it a while back. I've also heard that Zoya Glimmer is a close dupe...I have it too but never compared the two.

Here's OPI Tickle My France-y on its own...I've used this before as underwears..nude base under another polish... as it matches my skin tone pretty good....

Sunday, March 20, 2011

I thought I'd try some different type of nail art ....here's my garden of Spring flowers!

Base is Finger Paints Aren't You Glad-iolous available at Sally's. To be honest, I picked these up more because I thought the rings that came with them were super cute...I don't really think these colours are all that unique.....

Then used an assortment of rhinestones to create the flowers and butterfly. I haven't done a whole lot with rhinestones...usually just add one here or there for the centre of a flower pretty much...that's it.

These two pix have had a coat of clear to hopefully keep the stones on my fingers for a day or so! I don't usually have the patience for all the stone fiddling....this didn't turn out too shabby except the ring finger...probably should have added one less stone...oh well...next time...and every mani error is just reason to redo my nails!

Here's the polish by itself...

Spring is one of my favourite times of the year! I always look at it as a time of new beginnings...and always looks forward to trees buds blooming, the tulips and daffodils sprouting and birds returning from the south! (Not to mention the start of spring means fresh maple syrup is around the corner! mmmmm!) Far too early for any of this to happen here in Ontario...but lets hope Spring is right around the corner!

Thursday, March 17, 2011

As you may recall from my posts and some of my comments, there's only so many image plates out there with a St. Paddy's theme, so last weekend, I sifted thru all my plates to try to come up with something that weren't just all shamrocks and here's what I came up with!

And in case enquiring minds what to know, I finally used the soft stamping plates that I got from nailart und mehr last summer. Here's what they look like if you aren't familiar:

(As they are made out of rubber, lint and hair stick to them like no tomorrow; they don't usually look like this after wiping with acetone... its just I wiped them with a paper towel for the picture and then all the lint and fibres rubbed off on them and I had no acetone with me to take it off!) While last year when I seen the soft plates on their website and watched the youtube tutorial, it was not in English but looked simple enough so I bought a few to try out. Low and behold, it wasn't as simple as it looks (to me anyway!)... no matter how much fooling around with them I did, I couldn't get it. So when I went to their site a few weeks ago, I seen now that they have posted some instructions on their use in English so tried it again and was comfortable enough to attempt to try the stamp on my nails. This was the first time but now that I have somewhat the hang of it, I'm going to try them more often as they have some really cool designs on them!

Here's a shout out to Lacquer Ware who suggested I attempt to freehand a Leprechaun on one of my St. Paddy's mani! I have absolutely no freehand skills...I can barely do those accent strokes with nail stripers....but I thought, "What St. Patrick's Day mani would be complete without a leprechaun?" Then I remembered I had gotten out my St. Paddy's day pin for my sweater for this morning and took a quick pix of it...(I have a soft spot for all holidays and themes and decorate my house theme crazy! I also have pins that I put on my coats or sweaters for every holiday and this is the one I'm wearing today!.)

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Two coats of Essie Going Incognito on all fingers but ring finger, which has one coat, then topped with one coat Jade Emerald Sparkle. The above pix was taken in late afternoon sunlight just a few minutes ago.

This pix was taken last night after I finished mani.

Stamped using IP XL F (again, I know!) using China Glaze L8R G8R for the stamp. I really liked the subtle look of the stamping against the Essie polish and in hindsight, wished I had have done all five fingers in Going Incognito, or used my thumb as the accent nail. Oh well, maybe for next year!

Here's before stamping....

I'm sure everyone is tired of the re-creation of the shamrock on the XL F plate-I hope to do one more mani, hopefully something different!

Sunday, March 13, 2011

THIS was the polish I was searching for last time for a St. Patricks Day mani. After some stash searching, it was in my hands.

After two coats of the polish, stamped with China Glaze Cheers to You and Nicole by OPI Positive Energy. I was fooling around with some polishes to see hwo they stamped and discovered Cheers to You worked not bad for stamping...and so did Midnight Kiss...they were slightly glittery; different that the sharp silver contract with my prefered go-to silver, Positive Energy.

Image plates used were XL F and BM03...unfortunately, there aren't a great deal of St. Paddy's image plates out there to chose from, so these were used again!

Here's OPI Aragan Suede by itself....

Lastly, as I didn't want to have to deal with a chipped, matte mani, decided to add a quick topcoat of CND Silver sparkle.

In real life, the silver sparkle isn't so obvious and you can still see the stamping but this doesn't relay in the pix!

I guess St. Patrick's Day is coming up! I'm not Irish, but love themed manis so thats why I've been doing them...do you have one planned? I know I've seen some great ones in the blogesphere....and its always so interesting to see everyone's interpretation of the day!

Friday, March 11, 2011

I'm not a big fan of greens and the green polish that I happen to be looking for, I couldn't locate. So going thru my stash, I came across NYX Jungle, so thought I'd give it a whirl for my next St. Patricks Day mani.This polish is very very sheer and even with three coats, can still see VNL in certain lighting. You are looking at three coats. It has an interesting gold shimmer that peaks thru...I liked the smooth application (a little on the runnier side but I had no issues applying it) and the kind of shimmer finish that is easier (for me) to clean up so I was happy as I'm still working on my cleanup skills!

Stamped using CND Gold Chrome using BM3 plate and for a bit of interest, used Nubar Martini glitter on the tips.I intially tried Lippmann Boom Boom Pow for the gold glitter interest, but it was too yellow making the tips turn lime green and not enough glitter (at least what I had envisioned in my mind) so opted for Nubar Martini instead.

Monday, March 7, 2011

Tomorrow is Mardi Gras and being the theme kinda gal I am, I couldn't resist a Mardi Gras mani. Here's what I came up with:

The above pix was taken the morning after doing mani in nature daylight. Base coats are CND Gold Chrome and Sally Hansen Turquoise Opal. Here's Turquoise Opal only...you can see the purple and blue but green hue was illusive... IP used were Konad m77, fauxnad m19, fauxnad T20 and fauxnad T39.

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About Me

I discovered Konad a few years ago and it has captivated me ever since! I have a large polish and plate stash that keeps on growing! The biggest challenge I have lately is...what polish with what plate!
If you're interested in a polish swap, or want to contact me, I can be reached at: mrsrexy at gmail dot com.